16 Things You Can Do Now That Winter's Come

Cold. Dark at 4:15 p.m. Yup, winter's a bitch. But here are 16 things you can do to occupy your time, improve your life, and have a little fun.

Dec 24, 2013

Cold. Dark at 4:15 p.m. Yup, winter's a bitch. But here are 16 things you can do to occupy your time, improve your life, and have a little fun.

1 of 15

Cook a Steak in Your Fireplace

The first time I put raw meat on a piece of smoldering firewood, I was nervous. I knew it would cook, but wouldn't it be nasty and ashy? I figured it would, but I was drunk and hungry and didn't care. I had a fire. I had meat. Did I really need to bother with a pan? I dropped the steak onto the fire. The result was the smokiest wood-grilled meat I had ever tasted, and not just because of the Christian Brothers brandy. "Dirty steak," as I later found out it was called, not only doesn't burn but doesn't even pick up much ash. Because the coals are smothered with meat (as you hope to be), there is no fire—and no dissipation of that precious wood flavor. You can use kitchen tongs to cook dirty steak, or, as I did, fireplace tongs. Here's the recipe: Throw steak on fire. Flip. Flick off ash. Salt. Consume.

—Josh Ozersky

Wesley Merritt

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2 of 15

Engage in a Daily Ritual

Just for the month. Read apoem every night before bed. Walk around the block twice at noon. Drink a finger of Scotch after dinner. Rituals keep us human. Consistency is comforting.

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3 of 15

Slow Cook, but Faster

January brings a sense of longing—of nostalgia for grandmotherly meals that require long, slow cooking, preferably by someone else. When forced to man the kitchen yourself, rely on a new generation of simmering sauces, light on additives and long on from-scratch flavor. Ranchero Red and Viva Verde from Two Sisters Fina Cocina (twosistersfinacocina.com) are the basis of traditional Mexican dishes like green-chile stew and enchiladas, and Spicy Nothings sauces (spicynothings.com) make it easy to turn out five types of curry, including a mild korma and a spicy vindaloo, using meat or vegetables. More of a food-kit-in-a-bag, Kaveli (kavelifoods.com) provides the grains, complex seasonings, and a list of perishables you'll need to make Indian classics like masala chicken and rice palau. You'll be cooking from the couch in no time. &

—Francince Maroukian

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4 of 15

Sharpen Your Knives

A dull knife is a sign of torpor, indolence, and weakness, like a Corvette with White Castle boxes all over the floor. What's the point? So: Start with a stone. The rod you see chefs swish-swish before they cut things only maintains an edge. You need to make one by rubbing it against something flat and hard. That was how the protohumans at Olduvai Gorge sharpened their stone axes, and if they could do it, so can you.

The stone should have a coarse side and a fine side—I like a 300/1000 grit. The modern ones, like my Henckels Twin Stone Pro, don't require soaking or wetting down, but I do anyway. You are essentially lining up the metal particles at the thinnest edge of the blade and shearing off the floppiest parts—I like the feeling of washing them away.

What really matters is getting the right angle. Too high and you blunt the edge, too low and you're just scratching the side. It ought to be around 20 degrees, which you arrive at by putting the knife perpendicular to the stone, halving the angle, and then halving it again.

As for the motion, Bob Kramer, the great knifesmith, instructs thusly: "If you're right-handed, hold the handle in your right hand and spread your left fingers across the blade for even pressure. Move the blade straight back and forth or pull the knife toward you, heel to tip, making a swooping motion on the stone." Flip the stone and do it again. Apply roughly the same pressure you'd need to push the knife through a Whopper.

You'll probably dull the knife the first few times. So what? Knives are meant to be worked hard. Really, they deserve nothing less.

New Orleans In the weeks after the Sugar Bowl, New Orleans is as balmy and calm as it gets all year (which isn't very).

San Diego The rugged cliffs of Torrey Pines, especially when temps peak in the golf-friendly mid-60s, trump Malibu's any day.

Fernando de Noronha, Brazil Brazil is crazed, hot, and sweaty right now—except at Fernando de Noronha, an archipelago in the country's northeast. Only 450 visitors are allowed per day on its white-sand beaches, and the swells, highest in January, are a surfer's paradise.

Marrakesh, Morocco An inferno most of the year, the city is now at its most temperate. Try the Fellah Hotel, an arts compound and boutique hotel twenty minutes from the city's center.

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6 of 15

Go for a Nice Walk in the Woods

That is not a figure of speech. Go for an actual walk in the woods.

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7 of 15

Go See a Live Boxing Match

HBO and pay-per-view killed boxing. Sure, they brought the sport into millions of living rooms on a regular basis, but this meant you didn't venture into the cold night and into a space warmed by tinny radiators and human bodies to experience boxing the way it was meant to be experienced. In person, up close, at your local Golden Gloves tournament or amateur fight night, you see sweat and spit flying from the ring. You see the ring girls, fresh off a shift at the local Hooters, touching up their lip gloss between rounds. You see the true believers, dead ringers for Mick and Paulie, sitting in the front row and searching for a winner. You see quiet fury. You see quieter pain. You see warriors, bruised and bloodied and majestic, in triumph and defeat. The smell is always strange. The air is always charged. And the nights, like the fights, are always too short.

Wesley Merritt

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8 of 15

Take a Test Drive. Just for Fun.

Three new cars worth taking for a spin, regardless of intent to buy...

2014 Porsche 911 Turbo ($149,295) Any 911, really. If the roads aren't slushy, and if they let you. You might want to wear a suit.

2014 Jeep Wrangler (two-door, $23,390) It's such a trucky old-school truck, which trucks its truck like no other.

2014 Audi S4 Quattro ($48,995) Proof that you can get through anything in a sedan if you buy the right sedan. —Sam Smith

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9 of 15

Change Up Your Drink

If you normally drink a martini, try…

AN EL PRESIDENTE

From Cuba, circa 1915. A little sweeter than a martini, but a reminder that it's warm somewhere.

Stir well with cracked ice:

• 2 oz flavorful white rum

• 1 oz sweet white vermouth

• 1 barspoon orange curaçao

• ½ barspoon grenadine

Strain into a chilled cocktail glass and add an orange twist.If you normally drink amargarita, try…

A SIDECAR

One of the progenitors of the margarita, but made with cognac.

Shake well with lots of ice:

• 1 ½ oz VSOP-grade cognac

• ¾ oz Cointreau

• ½ oz lemon juice

> Frost half the rim of a chilled cocktail glass with sugar. (Run a lemon around the outside rim, forming a ½-inch collar. Dip in sugar and let dry.) Strain into cocktail glass.

If you normally drink a manhattan, try…

A SPYDER

Replaces the vermouth with a more intense analog. Like a manhattan on steroids.

Stir well with cracked ice:

• 1 ½ oz straight rye whiskey

• 1 ½ oz Italian amaro, such as Nonino

> Strain into a chilled cocktail glass and twist a swatch of thin-cut lemon peel over the top.

If you normally drink a vodka soda, try…

UM

You should probably just stick with vodka sodas.

—David Wondrich

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10 of 15

Make Real Popcorn

Heat 2 Tbsp canola oil and 3 kernels of popcorn in a large covered saucepan. When 2 kernels have popped, the oil is hot enough. Add ? cup kernels. Hold the lid on tightly and shake vigorously every few seconds until all the kernels have popped, which should take 4 to 5 minutes. Top with something interesting:

• melted butter + salt + Sno-Caps

• Parmesan cheese

• chile powder + sea salt…

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11 of 15

Go to a Bookstore...

Walk in. Browse for a while. And buy a book.

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12 of 15

Make It a Big Book

Matterhorn (2010; Grove Press, $16), by Karl Marlantes. Maybe the best novel about combat in Vietnam, by a former Marine lieutenant. Took him thirty years to write it.

Jerusalem: The Biography (2011; Vintage, $20), by Simon Sebag Montefiore. One city as a measure of mankind's madness.

The Collected Poems of W. S. Merwin (2013; Library of America, $75). The only Library of America edition to devote multiple volumes (fifteen hundred pages) to a living writer.

Moby-Dick (1851), by Herman Melville. Because reading in high school isn't really reading. One of the best Januarys of your life.

Twenty percent off is bullshit. Forty percent off is a deal. Most retailers have rolling week-to-week markdowns throughout January, so even if you see something you like at 20 percent off, wait a few days and with luck you'll see that discount double.

A lot (but not all) of those markdowns occur on Thursday.

Overcoats, sweaters, boots, and heavier blazers promise the best deals; work suits, dress shirts, and dress shoes less so. (If you can wait, hold off until May or November to buy stuff for work.)

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14 of 15

Catch Up on Awards-Season Movies

The Ones You Should See, in the Order* You Should See Them

• Gravity

• 12 Years a Slave

• Captain Phillips

• American Hustle

• The Wolf of Wall Street

• Her

• All Is Lost

• Inside Llewyn Davis

• Lone Survivor

• Rush

• Nebraska

• Dallas Buyers Club

• Saving Mr. Banks

• Fruitvale Station

• August: Osage County

*Recommended order based on film's quality, the importance and/or appeal of the subject matter, and the degree to which your friends and goddamn coworkers will talk about the ending like you're not even there.

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15 of 15

Take Care of All Your Lingering Financial Pains-in-the-Ass

There are financial tasks you don't put off—the mortgage payment, for example, is a good one not to miss. But other nagging jobs, like opening new accounts and auditing credit cards, always fall to the part of the to-do list that never gets done. No more. Pick a cold Saturday afternoon and chip away. Not doing so is costing you cash, in the form of missed interest, extra fees, and overlooked service charges. Afterward, go out and buy a nice bottle of something with the money you've saved. —Arielle O'Shea

ANNOYANCE: An annual fee on a card you don't use.

ANSWER: The general rule? Canceling cards hurts your credit score. The better rule? Don't pay something for nothing. Get rid of the card—but only if you don't plan to apply for a loan in the next six months.

ANNOYANCE: It seems like everyone you know has a better cellular plan.

ANSWER: Look at your usage. Most carriers give a snapshot of the last year online. iMessage and free text apps like WhatsApp and textPlus have changed the game; you may not need unlimited texting. Or consider a no-contract plan, which costs less per month (although it won't subsidize the cost of a new phone).

ANNOYANCE: Your cable bill just seems too high.

ANSWER: Google other cable or satellite services in your area—they'll all have current deals right on their home page. Call your company, ask to speak to the cancellation department, and say that you can get the same service for less. Ask about promotions to lower your bill.

ANNOYANCE: The interest rate on your credit card is too damn high.

ANSWER: A search on c on cardhub.com will n up 0 percent balance transfer offers. Look for one with a yearlong introductory period, and expect to pay a 3 percent transfer fee. But keep in mind: Three cards is about the right number. Any more can be a pain to manage.

ANNOYANCE: You've been ignoring your investments.

ANSWER: Switch to a target-date fund, which automatically rebalances over the life of your career. You still have to check in, but it does the work of reducing risk as you get older.